A WARWICKSHIRE charity has joined forces with footballer Fabrice Muamba to reduce the number of fatal heart attacks.

Arrhythmia Alliance has been chosen to spearhead a national campaign, which launched this week.

The charity was founded as a parent support group by Trudie Lobban after her ten-month-old daughter Francesca suddenly began losing consciousness.

It took doctors three years to discover that Francesca was having seizures that caused her heart to stop for short periods.

Trudie, who lives in Shipston-on-Stour, said: “It was a real awakening as I had no medical knowledge.

“Knowing Francesca’s heart was actually stopping, sometimes for nearly 40 seconds, was terrifying, but at least we had an answer and we knew we could deal with it.”

Trudie offered to set up a support group to help local parents.

When she appeared on GMTV and gave out her telephone number, she and her husband Charles were bombarded with calls.

“It was instantly apparent we had touched on something which affected so many people,” she said.

Trudie has since transformed the small support group into a global charity.

Now Bolton Wanderers has chosen the Arrhythmia Alliance as its national charity partner for this season.

Bolton star Fabrice Muamba collapsed during a cup match against Tottenham Hotspur in March this year.

He recovered but had to retire from football.

Trudie said: “Fabrice was extremely fortunate to benefit from immediate medical assistance of the highest calibre, and was still very fortunate to survive. Many thousands of other people are not so lucky.”

The Hearts & Goals campaign aims to raise awareness about the heart conditions that can cause a fatal cardiac arrest.

It also aims to raise money for 500 new defibrillators in communities across the UK and teach would-be livesavers in CPR.

Fabrice plans to learn to use one of those defibrillator in case he is ever called on to help in a similar situation.

He said: “I am really pleased to be able to lead this campaign. I was staggered to find out that 100,000 people a year die from sudden cardiac arrest.”